What Would It Be Like If
by AkikoTokamo
Summary: What would have been like if Kate wasn't a fugitive and she and Sawyer were cousins? JATE
1. The Crash

_okay folk this what I think it would have been like if Kate wasn't a fugitive and if she and Sawyer were cousins. Also Jack has already meet Claire and knows that they are half brother and sister, there will be some use of quotes from the actual show either by luck or because I liked the line for some reason or another_

_pairings that will be mentioned and encouraged; Jack&Kate(because I'm a huge Jate fan they will be the main couple), Sayid&Shannon and who ever else I can think of_

_reviews are all ways welcome  
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><p>Kate settled into her plane sit next to her cousin, Sawyer. They were returning home after a week and a half vacation in Australia. She had planned to go alone but her slightly over protective father, Sam, didn't want his only child, his pride and joy, his little girl, going on a trip half way round the globe by herself. Sawyer, who had always been more of an elder brother than a cousin, agreed with opinion and had volunteered to go with her.<p>

They were now about 6-7 hours into the trip home, on flight oceanic 815, when they hit some turbulence.

"Hang on Freckles cause it looks like we're in for a bumpy ride," Sawyer told her, calling her by a childhood nickname he had made up.

"I think that's an understatement," Kate countered as the fasten seat belt sign came on and the voice of a flight attendant came on over the intercom.

The turbulence weakened and stopped for about a minute when suddenly there was the sickening sinking feeling as the plain dropped. Passengers who had been in the aisle or hadn't yet buckled up again were thrown to the ceiling only to plummet back down as the plane's free fall came to an abrupt stop.

Kate reflexively placed a hand on Sawyer's right forearm; he reached over and placed his left hand on her's. Those who had landed on the floor hurried back to a seat and strapped themselves in, oxygen masks dropped from compartments in the ceiling and they strapped them on. there was the unmistakable sound of tearing metal as the tail of the plane ripped from the middle section. The pressure quickly changed and huge gusts of wind roared to the opening.

Sawyer pulled Kate toward him, her head placed on his chest and his body angled to protect her from the debris that flew past them at many miles an hour. Kate squeezed her eyes tightly shut as she felt his arm on her back, soon passing out. Sawyer, whose eyes were also shut, heard the tearing sound again and opened one eye just enough to look forwards as the front of plane broke away soon afterwards he also passed out.


	2. Patching Up A Stranger & Finding Sawyer

_Other things besides those already mentioned maybe subject to change also_

_Disclaimer; I don't own Lost or characters_

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><p>Kate blinked slowly as her eyes started to focus and adjust to the dim light. She sat up looking around; she had been laying on a steep slope of a hill and in front of her stretched out a bamboo grove. She turned and started climbing up the hill side slipping in the wet grass occasionally scraping her unprotected forearms.<p>

She found herself a few feet away from an old dirt and rock trail. In a half daze she walked slowly down it. After about a minute she hurried someone speak to her from the left.

"Excuse me," came the male voice again. She turned to see a very handsome man beckoning to her. She walked toward him noticing he wasn't wearing a shirt on his muscular body, she then also noticed he had blood on him and was hold something.

"Have you ever used a needle and thread?" he asked her.

'_Strange question,'_ she thought before responding "yeah, I've mended holes in jeans before, why?"

He moved a little to show her a long gash in his side, then saw her flinch slightly upon seeing it.

"I'm a doctor and I would do it myself but I can't reach," he said, "and I'd go back to the beach and ask my sister to but after what just happened I think it would be too much stress on her and the baby. It's not that different from mending jeans."

"Yeah," she said slightly sarcastically, "except instead of denim it's skin and I don't recall that the jeans were bleeding."

"Okay yeah there is that," he smirking, _'she's funny and beautiful,' _he thought, "please."

"Alright," she said moving closer to him.

Kate took the needle and black thread from him after she had sterilized her hand with a bottle of alcohol he had. She knelt in the sand beside him as he explained to her how to start the stitches. She tried to ignore the pleasurable twinge in her stomach from the almost electric feeling when she touched his skin, he had felted it too. He could now feel her dislike at having to sew him up so he told her a story about his first sole operation.

"I think I would have run for the door," she said as she pulled her last stitch a little tighter.

"No, I don't think you would've. You're not running now," he said turning to her with a smile. She returned it finishing the last stitch then tie off the thread and cutting the extra.

"Why were you on the plane?" she asked as she did.

"Coming back from burying my father, and also taking my sister back to the states with me so I could help her raise her baby, you?"

"Heading home from a vacation with" Kate paused, her eyes widened. How the hell could she have forgotten Sawyer?

"With…" he prompted as he put his shirt back on.

"My cousin, shit I've got to find him."

"I'll help you look; least I can do after you patched me up."

"Thanks," she said.

"Where did you wake up, if you were sitting together he'd probable be around there," he said a bit matter-a-facto.

"This way," she said then hurried down the trail the man fallowing.

"You know I didn't catch your name," he said once she stopped.

"Kate Austen," she replied moving to the edge of the hill.

"I'm Jack Shephard," he said moving down the hill then hold out his hand to help her.

"Thanks," she said taking his offered hand. "I came to just over there," she motion to a slightly flattened patch of grass.

"Okay, what's you cousin's name?"

"James Ford, but he'll probable respond to Sawyer faster."

They then moved deeper into the bamboo grove periodically stopping to call for him. Making some small talk to pass the time, he learned her father was a Sargent in the army and she worked as a translator part-time and those spoke several different languages. She learned he was a spinal surgeon like his father and then he and his sister Claire were half siblings. Jack was about to say something to comfort Kate, who was obviously getting worried, when she held up one finger for him meaning not to say anything. She listened intently as did Jack, then the heard it.

"Freckles?" the voice was faint and distance but still strong.

"Sawyer," Kate called moving in the direction of the voice Jack on her heels.

The moved through the thicket bobbing and weaving between bamboo when a voice came again.

"Come on, damn it," the yell much louder now came from Jack's left, "Freckles olly olly oxen free." Kate turned and head toward Sawyer's voice following Jack, who was in the lead now.

Jack came out into a more open area to see a man looking around. He had dirty blonde hair which was slicked back, his face scruffy. Jack moved out of the way as he heard Kate moving closer behind him.

Kate ran towards him jumping into his open arms hugging him tightly. Sawyer held her just as tightly holding her off the ground by nearly half a foot.

"Hey Sweetcheeks, can you not scary me like that again?" he said setting her feet back on the ground.

Jack, looking down not making eye contact, couldn't help be a glad he know they were only cousins since if he hadn't he may have thought there was something more to it. To which he knew he would be jealous of, _'but I've only know her for maybe an hour,'_ he berated himself mentally.

Kate took a step back from him then placed her hand on his cheek moving his head slightly to look at him.

"You're bleeding," she stated. Jack looked up from the ground to look at them. He moved closer to them, he could see what Kate had been talking about now. A small amount of blood a smeared around a graze on the right side of Sawyer's forehead, Sawyer looked at him skeptically as he moved to look closer at it. He shifted his gaze to Kate who told him Jack was a doctor and he let him take a better look at the graze knowing he'd get an earful from his little cousin if he didn't.

"Any dizziness or headache?" Jack asked him judging if there was a concussion which he accepted.

"Nope," was Sawyer's simple reply.

Kate caught Jack's surprised blink, "his very hard headed," she explained.

"Hmph, look who's talking," Sawyer chuckled and Kate rolled her eyes.

After being sure Kate's cousin didn't have a concussion or any other side effects from the bump he led then to the beach where the middle section of the plane wreckage was and where the survivors were.

"You know how you called what I said on the plane an understatement?" Sawyer asked as Kate and him say the carnage of the crash for the first time, Smelling the smoke, a scent that smelled sickeningly like burning flesh and feeling the heat from the fires all for the first time.

"Yeah," Kate said absentmindedly as she stared in horror at the mess.

"I think that was an understatement," Sawyer said, Kate nodded before. Then realty caught up to her and she went about helping those she could with Sawyer helping her, he wasn't quite compassionate enough to help them on his own but he wasn't about to let her out of his sight. So he did as she instructed him, helping move thing off someone or help her lead people to safety.


	3. First Night & The Pilot

_Disclaimer; I don't own the show or characters_

_reviews please_

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><p>Sawyer and Kate sat by a small fire looking into the embers, a couple minutes past before Kate broke the silence between them.<p>

"Do you think they know what happened to us yet?" Kate asked rapping her knuckles against her chin.

"Yep," Sawyer said tossing a piece a twig he had broken into the fire, he didn't have to ask her who she meant. He knew her to while not know she was speaking of her parents, his had died several years back after which Uncle Sam and Aunt Diana, her parents, had taken care of him.

"We've got to get back."

"We will Freckles, we will," he looked up from the fire to see the doctor walk over to them carrying a couple airplane blankets along with a very pregnant blonde woman, who had already introduced as his sister Claire. "Well if it isn't Jacko and Mamacita."

She sat down and Jack draped one of the blankets over her shoulders then hand the other to Kate, who thanked him. They talked some and between them pieced together the events leading to the crash.

"The smoke could have been from the tail or the front, if it's the front then we could get the transceiver and signal for help," Jack said knowing this from the few flying lessons he had taken before.

"Which means we'll have to check it out in the morning," Kate said.

Jack was about to ask her what she meant by we when a rumbling howl was heard from the jungle behind them.

"What the hell?" Sawyer muttered standing up watching as trees wove as if by a violent gust of wind, but there was no wind. Kate, Jack and Claire also stood moving slowly forward toward the jungle.

"Did any body see that?" Claire asked as trees started to fall.

"Yeah," came the reply from a large man beside her, they knew to be called Hurley. A few of the survivors had moved to stand with their group as if the large the group the safer they would be.

Animal like growls and roars echoed from the jungle to the beach, the waving of the trees slowed and the sound soon stopped.

"Well that just bloody great, ain't it?" said a brit named Charlie, who was standing beside Sawyer, who was beside Kate then was Jack then Claire. Jack and Sawyer stood little ways in front of the girls as if to protect them from what was out there. 

Jack stood looking out to the ocean when he heard someone walking over to him, he didn't look up since he knew it was Kate. How he knew he wasn't sure how but he knew.

"So you ready?" she asked standing beside him.

"You don't have to go, just point me in the direction and I can do it on my own," he said not wanting her out there with whatever it was that had made an appearance last night.

"Yes I do, you may need my help with it," she told him stubbornly.

"If Freckles is going then so am I," said a voice, obviously Sawyer's, from behind Kate.

"Alright then," Jack said turning to head toward the lifeguard named Boone, "grab a couple back packs and some water we'll leave in a minute."

Sawyer and Kate stood waiting at the edge of the jungle path way.

"Aww a brit tag-along," Sawyer said spotting Charlie behind Jack.

"Be nice for once," Kate told him in a whisper as they drew nearer.

"All set?" Jack asked, Kate nodded, "okay let's go then."

They left Charlie humming some tune, soon after starting Kate learned that Charlie was in a band called Drive Shaft. About an hour later it started raining.

"Is that normal?" Charlie asked but no one answered him. 

Back on the beach it was also raining everyone ran for cover, except and older man who sat there like he welcomed it.

Claire sheltered under the wing looking out at the forest hoping her brother was alright. An elderly black woman named Rose stood behind her. She had been asked by Jack to keep an eye on Claire while he and his group were away.

Growling could be heard from the jungle while over the thunder, the trees swayed in a path as whatever it was moved.

"Jack," Claire murmured, Rose placed a hand on the young mother's shoulder.

"He'll be okay," she reassured her. 

It wasn't long after that the group of four found the front of the plane; Jack entered the twisted wreckage first, followed by Kate, then Sawyer, and Charlie brought up the tail.

"Okay get the thing then get out, right?" Sawyer spoke looking up toward the pilots' courtiers at the nose of the plane, which was several feet of the ground.

"That's the plan," Jack said starting his climb.

The way up to the cockpit was steep and gruesome with dead bodies. Sawyer saw one of Kate's feet slip from its foot hold he place a hand out for her to push against. With Jack's help she pulled herself to the last row of sits. Jack tried turning the knob but it wouldn't budge.

"Can you give me the extinguisher," Jack said motioning to the wall near Kate.

Kate moved grabbing it then hand it to him, he moved to hit the door knob.

"Wait," Kate said and Jack stopped, she move to look at Sawyer and Charlie, who had almost reached them, "move out the aisle," which they did. Jack nodded to her then hit the knob, nothing happen so he hit it again, still nothing. On the 7th or 8th hit the handle came off and the door flew open a body which had apparently been on the door fell down the aisle.

"You okay?" Jack asked Kate, who'd given surprised yelp.

"Yeah, Sawyer?"

"Oh peachy, nice call Freckles."

Jack move into the cockpit and helped Kate in.

"I'm fine, Charlie is fine by the way," he state clear a touch peeved no one had asked him.

Jack and Kate found a place to rest for a moment before pulling Sawyer in also.

"Okay," Sawyer said a bit winded, "know if you were a transceiver where would you hide?"

Jack moved to check the side the co-pilot would sit, Kate moved to where the motionless body of the pilot was still in his sit while Sawyer checked the compartments at the rear of the room. No one had yet noticed Charlie slip away.

As Kate reached over the body it gave a sudden gasp and jerk. Kate staggered back and Sawyer grabbed her arm to keep her from falling, Jack moved to the pilot, who coughed.

"Water," Jack said and Kate grabbed some from his bag and handed it him. He poured some of it into the pilot's mouth; he swallowed some and coughed the rest out.

"How many survived?"

"Least 48," Jack told him examining his head wound saying he probable had a concussion.

"How long?" he asked referring to how long they had been crashed.

"16 hours."

"We were about 6 hours in and the radio went died, so we rerouted to Fiji. When we hit turbulence we were least a thousand miles off course," the pilot said shakily. "Their looking for us in the wrong place."

Kate looked down; Sawyer placed a hand on her shoulder comfortingly.

"We've got a transceiver," pilot said moving to get up.

"You shouldn't move," Jack said pushing him back down.

"Under, it's under my chair," he said and Sawyer grabbed it handing it to him.

"Where's Charlie?" Jack asked.

Kate moved slowly to the door as the pilot tried to get the thing to work.

"Charlie?" Kate said looking around at the bodies but not seeing him. A door behind her opened causing her to jump; she turned to see Charlie looking at her.

"Yes?" he asked.

Kate looked at him quizzically but before she could ask him what he was doing in there a low growl could be heard outside the plane which trembled slightly.

"What the hell?" the pilot said.

"Kate," Jack said in a low whisper leaning out of the front room taking Kate's hand pulling her into the room with him, Sawyer and the pilot. Jack held Kate close to him as Charlie got in too.

"It's outside," Kate breathed.

"What is?" the pilot asked Jack held up his hand and everyone stayed quiet. Kate moved to Sawyer feeling strange that she liked being held by Jack even under the circumstances. Sawyer swallowed as shadows past the window, he held Kate a little tighter as a whining sound could be heard now.

Soon the shadow disappeared and all was quite. Jack moved to a fogged over window, rubbing it but the fog was on the outside. Kate moved to a window on the other side cupping her hand to see if it help but it didn't.

The pilot now out of his captain's chair moved to where a window had been broken out lean out it. He moved some large leaves out of the way, he pulled back placing the transceiver on his chair then leaned out even farther.

There was a growl again and the pilot yelled as something tried to rip him from the plane. His yell had cause Kate to scream, the pilot clung to the sides of the window. But the frame was torn from his grasp and he was pulled from the plane.

Blood stained the outside of the windows crimson and the pilot's screaming died with him.

"What hell was that?" Charlie swore.

The plane shock violently like something was hitting it, trying to get them out. Jack moved to grab the transceiver but the plane lost its purchase on a branch of a tree and fell to the ground this caused the four inside to also fall and knock the transceiver from Jack's grasp. Jack moved to grab it again.

"Jack, we got to go," Kate said and he starched farther, Sawyer pushed her out of the door. Jack grabbed it and ran out after him with Charlie behind.

Kate looked back at them as she ran ahead, suddenly Charlie fell and she stopped. Sawyer stopped and looked back to see him trying frantically to untangle his foot from a root. Jack also saw this and went back to him as he shouted for help.

"Run," Sawyer yelled at her before going to help the doc, he waved her off and after heisting for a moment she ran again.

She skidded in the mud before heading inside a network like tangle of roots of an ancient tree. Gasping for air she looked back in the direction she had come from but no one fallowed her, she whimpered softly.

"Jack!" she yelled, nothing. She gasped for air then screamed again, "Sawyer!"

She looked up as thunder boomed overhead, she whimpered as tears slipped from her eyes, _'no, please __no __,'_ she thought frantically, she had never been more afraid in her life.

She looked in to the empty jungle suddenly remembering the story Jack had told her yesterday, though that seemed like years ago now. She took a shaky breath then start counting to 5 out loud.

"One," she stammered. The other number came out much stronger than the first and stronger still than the one before it.

She took a deep breath her fear ebbing now, she was about to still out of the cage of roots to go back when a sound of a twig breaking could be heard. She spun around to look behind then shock her head no, the sound of rustling wasn't coming from that way.

She turned startled by Charlie, who had appeared seemingly from nowhere. Before registering who he was she pushed at him on reflex, and he started to fall also on reflex he grabbed her arms and the both fell, her on top of him.

"Where's Jack," she asked after hitting the ground "where's Jack and Sawyer?"

"I don't know," he said over the rain.

"Did you see them?"

"Yeah they pulled me up again, but we got separated," he said, Kate looked up at the sound of movement and chuckling.

"Heck Kate" Sawyer laughed, "I know it's been a long time," he was interrupted by more of his own half suppressed laughter, "but now isn't…" he broke into more laughter giving up on his joke. "Oh God I can't even keep a straight face," he laughed as she stood up.

"Where's Jack?" she asked.

"I don't know," he told her between deep breaths as he tried to calm the laughter.

"We have to go back," that got him to shut up.

"You serious?, Kate there's a monster quality to this all," Charlie said getting up.

"Then stay here," she said walking back, Sawyer moving quickly after her to be followed be a stammering Charlie.

Kate walked in the lead, then a jumpy Charlie and Sawyer watching rear in case it came back, the rain had stopped now.

"You know my name is Charlie, right? I mean you only shouted for Jack and Sawyer," he said but she ignored him seeing something shining on the ground in front of her.

She knelt down and carefully picked it up out of the mud, rubbing some of it away. It was the wings and shield that had been on the pilot's uniform. Charlie knelt beside her looking at it and Sawyer stood looking over her shoulder.

"Ain't that the pilot's?" Sawyer asked his southern drawl ever present.

Kate didn't answer she was looking into the puddle before her. It reflected what was above them and it looked like tree branches but there was something else, something human shaped. Kate looked up at the trees and slowly stood staring at it. Sawyer and Charlie looked up know, seeing body of the pilot.

"What the…" Charlie trailed off.

"It's the pilot," said a voice and Jack stepped out of the trees. Kate took a couple steps towards him. She had the urge to hug him and tell him she was glad he was okay but she didn't.

"Did you see it?" she asked instead, he shook his head.

"Any of ya got any thoughts on how he got up there?" Sawyer asked glancing back at the pilot. The others shook their heads. "Great."

The group heads back to the camp and during the trek Kate gives Charlie some encouragement saying that she didn't see him as a coward. Charlie couldn't help but recall, rather shamefully, his use of heroine on the plane shortly before crashing and his retrieval of the tiny bag earlier on the trip.

"You said your father was in the army," Jack said to Kate as she walked beside him. "Would you know how to repair this?" he asked holding up the transceiver.

"Sorry to say no, I know how to use it, but not fix it."

The arrived back at the beach just after noon Jack told the rest they had found the transceiver but it had been damaged in the crash. He asked if anyone might be able to help. A man of Iraqi nationality known as Sayid stepped forward.

"I may be of assistance," he said he accent evident, Jack smiled hopefully to him and hand him the transceiver. The meeting soon broke up afterwards.

"So what's the plan now?" Sawyer asked jogging over to Kate, who was walking fairly quickly down the beach.

"Your plan, no idea. Mine though, I plan to go wash up and change," Kate said heading off around a bind of the shore to secluded place, Sawyer tagged along.

"Then my plan is to make sure none of the guys try spying on you then."

"Whatever," Kate said knowing she wouldn't be able to stop him from trying to protect her from the other guy's less than innocent intentions.

"But for some reason I don't think you would mind if Jack was watching," he teased having caught her glances at him on the trip to and from the front of the plane.

"Shut up Sawyer," she said moving the tree line, he fallowed, "stay," she pointed at the ground. She then walked down to the water, Sawyer stood with his back leaning against a tree watching her.

"Did you know that there is a man watching you from the trees?" Sun said she had forgotten her husband's, Jin, instructions not to speak to anyone. She didn't believe that this would matter since she didn't think the young woman understood her, but when Kate look at her she could not help but try to explain.

"Him," she motioned to Sawyer, who for fun looked away from them, "thought you should know," she said in Korean.

"Thank you," Kate replied also in Korean, this made Sun blink at her a bit surprised, "he is my cousin and decided he would accompany me."

"I didn't expect you to know what I said," Sun said, "my husband won't be too happy to know I spoke to someone."

"The secret is safe with me," she smiled reassuringly and Sun returned it.

"Thank you, I'm Sun."

"Kate."

The two talked for a bit longer before Sun left saying Jin would be wonder what became of her. Kate changed and walked back to the Sawyer.

"Thanks for the heads up," she commented.

"I said the men, watching out for the women is on you."


	4. Not Alone

_Disclaimer; I don't own Lost or characters, review please_

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><p>"Any luck?" Kate asked standing next to Sayid.<p>

"Yes and no," Sayid said, "yes, it is working, no I can't get a signal."

"Anyway to fix that?"

"Possible, if we go to higher ground we may get a signal,"

"Okay, how high exactly?" Kate asked, Sayid motioned to something behind Kate. She turned looking up, her gaze traveled up to the top of a mountain.

"Right," she said softly then turned back to him, "I'm going with you."

"That isn't necessary."

"Doesn't change the fact you got yourself a hiking buddy," she said determined just as Sawyer walked over.

"Best make that two," he said, motioning to Kate then himself as he said, "where she goes I go."

"Protective of her aren't you."

"Yeah you could say that," he said as Kate rolled her eyes.

"Alright then grab some supplies, we leave in an hour," he then walked off.

Kate left to tell Jack, who was getting water for the other survivors from a stream. He advised her not to go, but she wouldn't listen so he told if whatever it was showed up again to run and he wished her luck.

She, Sawyer and Sayid meet up about 15 minutes early and were about to leave when the lifeguard Boone showed up with who she thought to be his sister.

"I'd like to go with you," she said.

"No, she doesn't," Boone snapped out.

"Like you know what the hell I want."

"See she normally tried to make rash chooses to piss her family, namely me," he said trying to smooth it over.

"Oh shut up Boone," she turned back to them, "I'm going."

"I don't know if..." Sawyer started, but she glared at him and decided, for once, to not say anything.

"You going?" Shannon asked Charlie, who'd just walk over.

"Aw yeah, are you?" he asked after a brief hesitation.

"Yes."

"Defiantly," he smirked reflexively

"Alright but no more, you three get a backpack and supplies we may be out overnight," Sayid said just wanting to get on with the journey.

About 40 more minutes the three new members of the group showed up and the left. They walked through a clearer part of the jungle filled with tall almost 5 feet grass when someone spoke.

"Can we get a signal here?" Boone asked when they stopped for a moment.

"No," Sayid told him simple as he waited for a few of the others, Charlie, Boone and Shannon, to catch their breath.

"Why?" Boone asked.

"We in a shadow from the mountain," Kate spoke for Sayid.

A soft growl could be heard from deeper in the forest towards their left. A thudding sound, like something was running at them, could be heard.

"Bloody hell."

"Oh God," Shannon said.

"Is that the thing from last night?"

"Sounds smaller," Kate replied.

"Let's not stick around to find out," Sawyer said and they started running.

"This was a bad idea," Shannon said as they ran.

Sawyer turned to look over his shoulder; he saw a large white bear charging after them. He stopped and pulled a gun out of the side pocket of his bag. Kate knew Sawyer wasn't beside her now so she turned to see him standing there aiming at the bear as it drew closer.

"Sawyer!" she yelled about to run back. Sayid grabbed and held her back.

Several shots rang out in succession and the bear dropped sliding forward about a yard. Kate broke out of Sayid's hold and hurried to Sawyer, who was making sure it was died.

"Give me one reason I don't kill you," she snarled after reaching him.

The other four walked over to them and the 6 stood in a semicircle around the bear.

"Is this what killed the pilot?" Boone asked.

"Maybe a tiny little, itty bitty version of it," Charlie said.

"Tiny," Shannon said looking from Charlie to the rather large polar bear.

"What is a polar bear doing on a tropical island?" Kate said, the others blinked at the bear as if they just notice it was a polar bear.

Jack sits down by Claire having finished checking on the injured; neither said anything for a while when Claire broke the silence.

"So are you worried about her?" she asked looking over at him.

"Her who?" Jack asked as he kept looking out at the sea.

"Oh come on Jack. Kate."

"I'm worried about all of them," he said telling a half truth.

"Yes, but you're more worried for though, aren't you?" she persisted.

'_But why, I've known her for only a day,'_ he wondered when Claire jumped giving a tiny squeak of surprise, Jack turned to her.

"He kicked," Claire smiled rubbing her stomach.

"He," Jack repeated also smiling as Claire took his hand a placed it on her swollen stomach so he could feel.

"It can't be a polar bear," Boone said knelling beside the dead bear.

"It's a polar bear," Sayid and Shannon said together, this made Shannon blush some but the others didn't see.

"Yeah but they don't live in the tropics," Charlie pointed out.

"Well this one did," Sawyer told him.

"Where did that come from?" Sayid asked Sawyer.

"A bear village, how the hell should I know?"

"Not the bear, the gun," he clarified

"Oh, off one of the bodies, guess he was security or something."

"You took it off a body," Boone said.

"Yeah, thought it may come in handy, and guess what I just shot a bear," he pointed to the bear with the gun he still held.

"We should keep moving," Sayid said walking off putting an end to any further conversation.

After about ten minute Sayid pulled out the transmitter and began to turn a couple knobs on it.

"We're high enough?" Charlie asked.

"Yes I believe so," he turned a knob a little more and static began to filter from a speaker. He stopped and looked at, "we got a bar," he said softly then held it to his ear as the rest of the group grew closer to him. "Mayday," he repeated into it.

A high pitched sound, like from a microphone that was too close to the speakers.

"What is that?" Boone asked.

"It's feedback but from what I'm not for sure," Sayid said then paused, "but it may be that we can't transmit because something else already is transmitting."

"From where?" Sawyer asked.

"Close, the signal is strong."

"Maybe there are more survivors," Boone said.

"From our plane, how would then have one," Shannon argued.

"What kind of transmission is it?" Sawyer asked.

"I don't know. Could be a radio or a sat. phone," Sayid speculated.

"Can you tune into the signal?" Kate asked.

"I'll try," Sayid said turning a knob slightly.

"Must be the rescue party," Charlie hoped. A French woman's voice could be heard now. "The French are coming. I've never been so happy to hear French," he said happily jumping around talking about rescue and French foods and snails.

"That's not a rescue party," Shannon said.

"Do you speak French?" Sayid asked her.

"Some, it said something about other, dead and it killing them," Shannon said.

"Oh no, no" Sayid said look at the transmitter.

"No?"

"What no?"

"The battery is dying," Sayid said.

A male voice could be heard, "Iteration 17294532."

"That weird," Charlie stated.

"It's on a loop. Next the number will end in a 3," Sayid said.

"Freckles, you speak French. What's she saying?" Sawyer said over the woman.

"Iteration 17294533," came the male voice. Then was the woman again and everyone one staid quiet listening.

"I'm alone on the island now. The others are dead." Kate said part of it letting Shannon finish.

"It killed them. It killed them all."

No one said anything and all that could be heard was the man's voice.

"Iteration 17294534."

"16 years."

"What?" Sawyer asked Sayid.

"The message is almost 30 seconds long, repeating," he looked up from the transmitter. "It's been repeating for 16 years and 5 months, if it is repeating then they must still be here."


	5. The Beast

_again I don't own Lost, review please_

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><p>"Dude, are they still not back?" Hurley asked walking over to Jack who was looking out at where the ocean and the sky meet at the horizon. The sun was nearing that line now and would be setting within an hour, the first of the stars where starting to appear.<p>

"No, not yet," Jack said before leaving to check on the injured.

His mind was stuck on Kate; it had been since she told him she was leaving. He tried to occupy his mind with other things and other people but nothing work. He kept wondering and kept worrying, was she safe? Would she be back soon?

"It's getting dark," Boone pointed out on their trip back down the hill.

"Then pick up the pass," Sawyer said from a couple yards in front.

"Heck," Boone grumbled and Sawyer stopped.

"Sorry, didn't quite catch that. Care to say it again?" he said looking back at him Kate put a hand on his arm.

"We should make camp," Sayid said ending argument before a fight could start.

"Here?" Shannon asked.

"Yes," Sayid said putting his bag on the ground.

Sawyer wanted to keep going, he was confident enough that he would have gotten back if he was on his own before dark. But he knew that if he did keep going one of two things would happen; one Kate would be left with three guys and a blonde that may not protect her if something happened, the second would be that she would go with him and if something happened then it would be only him and her and he may not be able to protect her on his own. The latter was the more likely of the two but one way or another he was going to protect Kate and it would easier if there were more people so he put his bag on the ground beside Kate's.

Night had fallen and they had built a camp fire, Sayid demonstrating, roughly and hypothetically, where they were. He had placed a stone on the ground saying it would represent Australia and he held a torch which was them in the plane. He talked them through leaving the continent and then losing the radio 6 hours in and heading to Fiji when they hit the turbulence and going down. He stomped out the fire that caught in the grass when he touched the torch to the ground.

"Regrettable no one knows that we changed course," Sayid placed the torch back in the fire.

"Yeah, but they can still know where we are. You know, they've got satiates that can take a pictures of a person's license plate," Charlie said.

"If only we were wearing license plates. Satellites are like cameras, they a point and shot. Yes they can take a picture but they must be told where to point," Sayid told him.

"Oh," Charlie said looking back at the fire.

Sawyer, being his usually smartass self, clapped, "really enjoyed the puppet show. Fantastic, but we're stuck in the middle of damn nowhere. Why don't we talk about that other thing? You know that transmission Muhammad picked up on the radio? The French chick that said, "They're all dead." The transmission's been on repeat for" he snapped his fingers having lost the numbers "how long was it, Freckles?"

Kate rolled her eyes before responding, "16 years and 5 months."

"Exactly, how about we talk about that?"

"We'll have to tell everyone when we get back," Boone said.

"Tell them out exactly?" Shannon asked him.

"What we heard."

"We can't tell them anything. To tell them what we heard without understanding would only create panic. If we tell them what we know we take away their hope. And hope is a very dangerous thing to lose."

"So, we have to lie," Kate clarified, and Sayid nodded.

Jack tied a couple pieces of a bamboo together while Hurley held them still.

"Was it a dinosaur?" Hurley asked out of the blue.

"Was what?" Jack asked not following Hurley's train of thought.

"The thing that killed the pilot."

"It wasn't a dinosaur."

"So you saw it," Hurley said as he helped Jack put a tarp on the bamboo frame.

"No."

"Then how do you know it wasn't?"

"Because dinosaurs are extinct.

"Oh, right." 

Sawyer looked out into the darkness as the others slept, he couldn't sleep with the thought of whatever it was out there. He looked beside him at Kate who was laying on the ground beside him, he looked around at the others who were all asleep.

"You should sleep," Sawyer told her softly.

"Can't" she whispered.

"You're thinking about him aren't you?" he asked.

"Who?"

He didn't reply, he knew the answer was yes. He could see it when she looked at him, she was falling for him, hard. He could only hope she won't get hurt like she had been hurt in the past. Even with the he hadn't seen her this happy in nearly a year, before her close friend Tom had been killed in a car crash. He had been her first love and even though they were not together any more he had still been her closest friend and she had been crushed when he had died. He never wanted to that happen to her again; he hated the feeling of helplessness he had all to often when it came to these things.

Jack tended to a couple of the injured that morning in the infirmary he'd built the night before, when Hurley hurried over to him.

"Dude, their back," Hurley told him then led Jack to where a many other survivors had gathered in front of Sayid who was speaking.

"As you and the others know, we hiked up the mountain in an attempt to help the rescue team locate us. The transceiver failed to pick up a signal. We weren't able to send out a call for help," was what Sayid had decided they would tell the rest of the survivors instead of the fact they had picked up the 16 year old French recording. "But we're not giving up. If we gather electronic equipment - your cell phones, laptops - I can boost the signal and we can try again, but that may take some time. So for now, we should begin rationing our remaining food. If it rains, we should set up tarps to collect water. I need to organize 3 separate groups. Each group should have a leader."

Kate had spotted Jack in the crowd and had stopped listening to Sayid. She moved away from the group going unnoticed by everyone, except Sawyer and Jack. Jack followed her away from the rest moving to a place where they could talk and not be over heard.

Kate told him about that they had been unable to send a message because of the French woman's preexisting one about the others being killed.

"Anything else?" Jack asked her when she finished.

"We came across a polar bear," Kate said not for sure how else to put it that would keep him from overacting.

"Are you alright?" he asked immediately concerned that she may have been hurt.

"We're fine," she reassured him, "Sawyer killed it, but there may be more and people shouldn't go in there alone."

"With whatever it is knocking over trees I don't think we need to worry about people wondering off in to the jungle," Jack joked and Kate smiled at him.

Jack swallowed looking into the fuselage; he had to go in a see what medications he could find. He walked in to it electing to start at the front and move his way out again.

He knelt went through a couple bags, holding a flashlight with his teeth as he read the side of a prescription bottle. He looked up hearing movement he removed held the flashlight in his hand now and shined it around. He slowly stood up, seeing the movement and Sawyer popped out from between a few collapsed seats.

"Boo," he said with a smirk.

"What you doing?" Jack asked covering up the fact he was relieved that it was only Sawyer.

"Salvaging same as you," Sawyer told him.

"What's in the bag?"

"Oh, some booze and couple books," Sawyer said dismissively.

"Books?" Jack repeated questioningly.

"Oh don't sound so surprised Doc."

"Well, while your looting would mind helping me?" Jack asked expecting some sarcastic or smart-aleck remark.

"Sure," Sawyer said with a shrug, "what are you looking for?" he planned on using this time to find out what kind of person the good doctor was in hopes of protecting Kate.

"Aw, medicine," Jack said he hadn't expected him to agree at least not that easily. 

Claire struggled to drag a suitcase but stopped when she heard a voice speaking to her and the sound of footsteps heading her way.

"Hey, I'll get that," said a voice with British accent.

"Thanks" Claire said as he grabbed the case and with some difficult do to its weight lifted it. He staggered over to a wheel chair and placed the bag in it. He wheeled it on as Claire walked beside him smiling.

"So how is the baby?" Charlie asked trying to make conversation.

"He's doing good," Claire said.

"Good," Charlie said, "so, uh was your husband on the plane?"

"No, I'm not married."

"Oh," Charlie said trying not to sound hopeful.

"I know how modern of me," Claire said.

"Well, who needs men, right? Bloody useless." Claire laughed and Charlie smiled, he liked her laugh.

With Sawyer's help Jack had quickly filled his bag with all the medication that they had found. Before they went their separate ways Jack hand Sawyer a couple books he had found.

Sawyer smirked as he looked at the covers then looked back at Jack, "thanks," he said then left.

Kate sat down next Walt, who was still holding on to Vincent's leash. Kate was wondering how to start a conversion but he did it for her.

"Do you have dog?" he asked, looking up at her with innocence in his eyes.

"Yeah, I do," she smiled at him have a very good idea of how he felt.

"What's its name?"

"Duke," she said thinking of her 4 year old golden retriever, who was staying with her parents while she was away.

"What kind of dog is he?" he looked up from the lead again.

"He's a golden retriever. What kind of dog is Vincent?"

"He's a lab," Walt smiled a little.

"You know labs are some the smartest dogs," Kate told him, Walt looked back at the leash and smiled softly. "I'm sure we'll find him." 

Kate watched as the small fire Sawyer had made grew slowly, he was sitting next to her watching her as she was deep in thought; he finally spoke.

"Who you thinking about?" he asked her.

"Duke," she said simply, she then sighed and looked back him her eyes mist. "I miss him."

Sawyer slipped an arm around her and hugged her; he didn't know what to tell her so he held her. He wouldn't admit it but he missed the fur ball too, Duke had some how developed a habit of stealing Sawyer's shoes whenever he came over. Duke would hide them God knows where and wag his tail while Sawyer cursed and rant while he looked for them, when Sawyer finally gave up looking Duke would retrieve the shoes and put them back. He wouldn't chew them or tear them up just hide them.

After a while Sawyer loosen his grip and let go. They sat quiet for a while looking up at the stars. Kate blinked and looked over at him like she had remembered something.

"What?" he said with a smile.

"I just noticed that I haven't seen you smoke since before we got on the plane," she told him and he chuckled.

"I gave it up."

"Seriously?" she grinned at him.

"Yep," he said and Kate gave a quick kiss on the cheek.

"I'm proud of you," she told him smiling. 

The next day was actually pretty normal. Vincent had been found and was back with Walt. Kate had found several different fruit trees while exploring different parts of the jungle and with Sawyer's help had carried a good amount back to the beach. That night though thing seemed to lose the little normality that day had.

Kate blinked slowly as she woke up to the sound of a dog barking; in her half-awake state she first thought it was Duke. But she then remembered that she was on an island and the dog was Vincent. Her eyes flew wide open and she sat up when she hear a growl, that was definitely not Vincent.

Sawyer was beside her, he stood and grabbed a large flashlight as she moved to stand behind Jack, who had a small pin light from the first aid kit. Slowly the three of them, followed by Sayid, Hurly, Charlie and a few others, move towards the fuselage. The sound of something rummaging in it could be heard.

"What is it?" Kate asked softly, voicing what everyone else was thinking.

"Someone is in there." Claire sounding a bit shocked that someone would go in there with the bodies, especially at night.

"Everyone in there is died," came Sayid's replied.

"Jack," Kate said as Jack moved towards it, she took a step to follow after him but Sawyer stepped in front of her. Sawyer moved behind Jack and Kate followed behind him

Jack moved closer holding up the flashlight, "Sawyer," said when he saw the southerner falling behind him.

"Right behind you Jackass."

Charlie looks back at the rest of the group, no one moves, he sees the fear on Claire's face as she watches her brother and he stood up and follows after them.

The four slowly crept towards the plane while the growls and sounds of rummaging continues on. Sawyer and Jack shine the flashlights in to the gaping hole in the back of the plan. They still don't see anything so they moved closer.

They stood only a foot or two in front of the plane now, and they could make out movement in the shadows. One of the beams of light reflected off a pair of eyes, and an even louder growl is heard plus the sound of something moving towards them.

"Run," Jack order and group flees, the other survivors that had stayed behind also ran. Charlie helps Claire move while Sayid helps Shannon and Boone, and Jin helps Sun. Jack pulls Kate to him as three things, which sounded similar to pigs, ran in to the jungle.

Kate realized she was still holding on to Jack's hand and quickly lets go, blushing. Thankfully for her no one can tell in the dark.

Many of them moved to look into the jungle after the animals.

Kate heard Sun ask Jin what was that in Korean, her question is then repeated by Charlie.

"What the bloody hell where they?"

"Boars," Locke told them.

Jack tended to a scrap on Charlie's arm as they plus Sayid, Kate and Sawyer spoke of what to do with the bodies.

"There are more than twenty bodies in there, it will be hard to bury them without shovels," Sayid observed.

"If we bury them the boars or some other animal will dig them up," Jack said as he finished with Charlie's wound.

"Then what are we supposed to do Jacko?"

"We'll have to burn them," Jack said not happy with the idea of doing that.

"Burning the remains, they deserve better than that," Sayid said though he knew it was the only way.

"Better than what? Being eaten by wild animals? Any bodies we bury are not going to stay buried for very long. Look, I know this seems harsh, but it's the only choose we have."

No one said anything for a while after that.

"Look, I'm not happy about it either, but we crashed a thousand miles off course. "They're looking for us in the wrong place. It's been 4 days, no one's come. Tomorrow morning we need everyone to start gathering up wood, dried brush, and turn that fuselage into a furnace. Wait until the sun goes down tomorrow night before we start the fire." Jack then hot up and left.

"Why does he want to light the fire as sun goes down?" Charlie asked.

"He hopes someone will see it," Kate said before she got up to go back to bed. 

Kate walks up to Sayid the next morning, he is working with the electronics that the other survivors had supplies him.

"Goes I wasn't the only one who didn't go back to sleep," she commented.

"Had better things to do then collect firewood."

"You're trying to pick up the transmission again, aren't you? The one we heard on the transceiver."

"If the French woman's transmission has truly been playing on a loop for 16 years then there has to be a power source on the Island. A significant one."

"Can you find it?" she asked hopefully.

"Hypothetically, yes. I'm making an antenna of sorts. With a few of these mounted at different points on the Island I may be able to use the transceiver to triangulate the signal, find out where it's coming from."

"And by finding where the transition is coming from you will be able to find the power source."

"Yes, mind you this is all hypothetical."

"What can I do to help," Kate asked, he smiled at her and gave her a few instruction on how to help.

Sayid swore under his breath in Arabic when he cut the side of his hand on a sharp bit of metal.

"Language much," Kate smirked at him; Sayid stared at her for a moment. Kate had spoken in Arabic not English.

"You speak Arabic as while," he said in mentioned language, he alluded to the fact she had interpreted the French transmission.

"Among other languages, yes."

"Would Korean be one of them," he asked, he had seen her and Sun talking but hadn't been close enough to hear so either she spoke Korean or Sun spoke English and hadn't told anyone.

"It would," Kate said and had a pretty good idea why he had asked. She knew that Sun could speak English, but they had always spoke in Korean, it was more important to Kate that Sun's speaking English was kept secret rather than her speaking Korean. Also if Jin ever found out Sun spoke to her it would be less of a problem for Sun if it seemed that Kate had started the conversation.

The two worked a while longer before Sayid spoke again; he asked her if she knew a Sergeant Austen in the US Army. It was Kate's turn to stare at him, she explained that he was her father and Sayid said that he had meet him many years ago during the war, and that it was thanks to her father that he had immigrated to the states after his girlfriend had been killed.

"Hey Freckles, where did you get to?" Sawyer called for her.

"Was wondering how long your cousin would let you out of his sight."

"Guess Locke is ready to go hunting," she stood up.

"Take this," Sayid said handing her one of the antennas they had finished, "try to put it someplace high."

She nodded and left.

Jack walked over to her a she place a knife in a sheath at her waist.

"So you're going boar hunting huh?" he said.

"It's not the first time I ever went hunting," Kate told him, he didn't know why but he could believe that.

"Tell me something, how come every time there's a hike into the heart of darkness you sign up? You know what's in there," he couldn't stop himself from saying.

"No, I don't actually, neither do you Jack," she replied moving to her backpack.

"That doesn't help the matter," he said fallowing her.

"If I didn't know any better I would say you that worried me," she flirted, _'I can't believe that I just said that.'_

"If I didn't know better so would I," Jack said then quickly looked for a way to cover up what he had just let slip. "Care to tell me the other reason you're going?"

Kate bit her lower lip for a second then unzipped her bag and showed him the homemade antenna, "Sayid asked me put his out somewhere so he can use it triangulate the distress signal we heard, find the source."

"So this isn't about boars," Jack said, Kate was about to speak when Sawyer called for her. She turned to leave.

"Be safe," Jack called after her, she looked back at him and smiled warmly.

"Yeah, you too," she left.

She meet the other three that were going on the hunt and they soon left. About 20 minutes in Locke, who was in the led, stopped and knelt down. Kate saw what he did and also knelt down.

"The ground here has been rooted up. That's how boars get the majority of their food, they dig. Afterwards they generally wallow in the dirt, rub up against the trees, scoring them with their tusks," he told them as he dug a the ground a little with his knife.

"Okay. So what does all that mean?" Michael.

"it means that we getting close," Locke stood and kept moving.

"How's your son doing with will this?" Kate asked Michael after about 10 more minutes of tracking.

"A hell of a lot better than I am."

"You must be proud, he's a brave kid."

"Yeah. I can't take credit for that. I wasn't part of his life. Till his mother passed away, two weeks ago."

"I'm sorry," Kate said she didn't know what else to say to him.

"That's okay. They were living in Sydney the past couple of years. I flew out last week, you know, to go get him." Michael had been about to ask Kate why she had been in Australia when soft shuffling sound could be heard ahead of them.

Locke held out an arm and they stopped. Locke slowly and cautiously moves toward a tree half hidden in the tall grass, the other three following behind him. With his knife he points out some gouging on the trunk he looked to them for conformation that they understood. He points ahead of them and moves in that direction, Kate behind him, Sawyer on her heels and Michael close to 3 feet behind them.

Kate unsheathed her knife as Locke signals to her and Sawyer to move around in the bushes. Sawyer nods and got ready to move as Locke motions for Michael to go around the other side.

"Quit giving us the steal signal," Michael says a little too loudly.

Kate's gaze snaps to look in the direction of where the boars were, there's the loud sound of mother charging at them. Sawyer grabs Kate as the boar comes out of the grass running at her; he lifted her off the ground and spins her around so that he is between her the razorback. They along with Locke get knock to the ground as it brush past them heading for Michael.

Kate places a hand to her right temple to feel blood from a graze met her fingers. She sits up hearing a groan, she looks to her right seeing Sawyer, he got the wind knocked out of him but is fine she looks to her left to see Locke lying on his back looking up at the sky. She smiles inwardly seeing that he is still holding his knife; she quickly finds hers and sheaths it. Then hears the groan again, she moves past Sawyer to Michael.

She finds him lying on his back like the others but unlike them he was injured. Kate brushes some of the leaves away from his leg wound and he moans loudly.

Sawyer was beside her now, "that doesn't look too good."

"John," Kate called to Locke who hadn't moved, "Locke you okay?"

"Fine, Helen," he said sitting up as Kate tore one Michael's sleeves and tied around his wound to slow the bleeding.

"Helen?" Sawyer said confused.

"What?" Locke asked blinking like he had just come out of a trance.

"You called her Helen."

"Which way did the boar go?" Locke as he got to his feet.

"Michael is hurt we have to get him to Jack," Kate said as Locke looked around.

"You two do that," he started walking off, "I'm going to get that boar."

"You're crazy," Sawyer said, Kate moved to go after him but Sawyer stopped her. "Leave him, we have to take him," he motioning to the groaning Michael, "back to camp." Sawyer put on Michael's arm around his neck while Kate did the same with the other and on the count of three and pulled him and slowly started to head back. 

"You know you have nice way about you. A good soul, kind, patient," Rose patted Jack's arm before accepting the water bottle he had brought for her. "Lot like your girlfriend's soul really, she someone else who would sit with me."

"Claire, she's not my girlfriend," Jack said figuring that who she was referring to.

"She's your sister, I know," she said turning from looking out at the ocean to look at him. "I'm taking about the other girl, ok so maybe she's not girlfriend, yet anyway. But I can see there is something between you and her, Kate."

"I've only known her four days though," Jack said, not denying that he felt something for her since he couldn't.

"You don't need four days to know if a person is your partner in life, you don't really even need four minutes, Bernard and I didn't," she said looking back at the ocean smiling.

"Stop for second," Kate said, she knew she had promised Sayid to get the antenna in place before she went back.

"I think the guy with the gimpy leg should really be the one to decide when to stop," Michael said breathing heavy as Kate and Sawyer sat him down.

"Shut up," Sawyer told him, "what's going on Freckles?"

"I'm going to climb this tree and install an antenna to boost the transceiver signal."

"You are going to climb that tree," Michael said point to the tree in question.

"I've climbed worse before," she said then quickly began to climb. It didn't take her long to reach the top and only about a minute to secure the device.

A growl could be heard in the distance, she caught sight of trees in the not too far distance falling.

"Locke," she breathed as Sawyer yelled for her to get down.

She skidded down the tree not noticing she also skinned up her arms, "get him back to camp," she told Sawyer before hurrying off.

"Wait Freckles," Sawyer yelled after her but she kept going, "damn it." He pulled Michael to his feet and ran with him back to the camp. _'Sooner I get him there, sooner I catch up.'_

"Dude what happened," Hurley said when he saw Sawyer practically carrying Michael in a dead run back.

"Get him to the doc," Sawyer said before running after Kate. 

It hadn't taken Kate long to find Locke as he moved towards a thicket following the sound of boars. She slowly from a sprint to jog when she reached him but before she could tell him they had run the trees not 10 yards in front of them swayed and boar ran out, a growl erupted from the trees as the beast emerged.

It grabbed the boar and bit it in two; it swallowed the first after crunching the bones with great ease then tore into the second part, which was larger. Locke and Kate backed in to the tall grass behind them which reached over their heads hiding them.

A second boar fled the bushes; unfortunately for it the beast had seen it. It pinned it with one huge foot, it claws almost like finger, before tear off its head. Kate and Locke could do only two things. Watch in horror as it tore into the boars, blood dripping from its snot and fangs, which were easily as long as Locke's knife, if not longer, and looked far more deadly. The other thing was pray; pray it didn't find them and pray that it wouldn't be hungry enough to go after them.

Once finished it gave satisfied growled, then it looked at them with its evil red eyes. It gave another growl that seemed to almost be a laugh before it turned and disappeared in the trees. Leavening the two human to terrified to even start to wonder how something as big as it could disappear like that or what it even was or how it came to be.

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><p><em>so we have met the beast, <em>_remember I warned you I would change other things too,__ it is here in place of the whole Man in Black and Jacob story_

_ hope you like the change_


	6. Sabatoge

_Disclaimer; i don't own Lost_

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><p>Locke and Kate stood there for some time just staring at the place it had been.<p>

"We have to move," Locke said placing a hand on Kate's shoulder pushing her a little to move. She stumbled ahead, she too stunned to think or even say anything when Sawyer appeared out of nowhere and hugged her. Then everything went black and she fainted, for the first time in her life she fainted.

"Kate," Sawyer said looking at her as her green eyes rolled back and she went limp in his arms.

"She fainted," Locke said then rubbed his head, "I'm surprised she didn't do that when we saw it. Guess she didn't feel safe enough then."

"Freckles doesn't faint," he said scooped her into his arms before looking back at Locke, "what was it?"

Locke shook his head, he had no words to describe the horror they had seen; he was still in shock himself.

Sawyer carried her back not paying attention to Locke as he killed a boar that had been sleeping in the setting sun. 

Jack sat and looked into the forest; he had already stitched up Michael and was now waiting for Kate. If someone had asked he would say he was waiting for the rest of the hunters but he really was only there for Kate.

Claire stood beside him then placed a hand on his shoulder as she sat down, being 8 months pregnant that wasn't exactly easy.

"You okay?" he asked her.

"Are you?" she asked him back.

"Why wouldn't I be?"

"Cause she's not back yet."

Jack said nothing after that, and after a few minutes she got up and left him with his thoughts.

He blinked as Locke walked out of the jungle carrying a boar. Locke motioned with his thumb over his shoulder, and Jack got up and ran forward, then froze as he watched Sawyer walk out carrying her, his heart sank as he followed them into Kate's tent.

Jack cleaned her scrapes as Sawyer told him all that he knew.

"Whatever it was she saw most have scared her really bad," Sawyer told then repeated what he had told Locke, "Freckles doesn't faint."

After a while Sawyer left to get some fresh air while Jack stayed with her. He had been gone for 10 minutes when Kate sat up a gasp. Jack placed hand on her shoulder pushing her back down again. Her terror filled eyes looked around the tent before the rested on Jack, who had been whispering words of comfort to her.

"This your way of saying 'I told you so'" she asked him having finally relaxed.

"I'm not big on rubbing it in," he smiled at her; he waited a while before asking her, "Kate what's out there?"

She stared up the tarp which made the roof of her tent, after a while she closed her eyes and shook her head, "I don't know what _it_ is, but Jack," she looked at him and he could see her fear, "it's not natural."

After a while Jack told her that she should rest, she nodded and was about to close her eyes when she looked into his deep brown eyes.

He could still see the fear in her beautiful green eyes; they seemed to be pleading for him to stay. He placed a hand on hers.

"I won't leave you," he told her and she smiled back at him the fear in her eyes seemed to dissolve and she fell asleep.

Outside the sun was setting as Claire read off the names held in the fuselage, once finished it was set a light. 

Kate and Jack were walking on the beach in the midmorning talking and enjoying one another's company when the sound of yelling and run was heard.

"Jack," came the voice several time, it had a British accent which meant it could only be Charlie.

"Now what?" Jack said not happy that his walk with Kate had been interrupted. They had only been making small talk but still it was something seeing as they had been alone.

Kate turn and was about to tease him by saying that what he got for being the only doctor on the island when something in the water caught her eye.

"There someone out there," Charlie said when he reached them pointing to where Kate was already look. Jack looked out too he could see them also.

In rush he pulled off his shoes, sock and shirt and dove into the water, Kate was alongside him as Charlie watched from the shoreline along with a few other people who had joined him.

They reached the last place they had seen him, then dove under the water. Jack's eyes stung from the salt keeping him from seeing anything clearly. He was forced to resurface a looked around expecting to see Kate but she wasn't there. Seconds ticked away, it seemed like hours before Kate came up again bring Boone along with her.

"Deep breaths," Jack instructed him as he gasped for air.

"Did you get her?" he asked as Kate held him above water.

"What?" Jack asked.

"The woman, I was trying to…did you get her?" Jack spun around finding who Boone meant, a person was about 50 yards out.

"Get him back to shore," Jack ordered Kate before swimming out.

Kate flipped on to her back her arms still under Boone's arms as she used her feet to move them both backward towards the shore. By moving backwards she could also watch Jack; he had reached the woman and was bringing her back in. Jack and the woman had reached the half-way point when Kate and Boone reach the shallows.

Sayid took Boone the rest of the way in while Sawyer helped the exhausted Kate. Jack reached the shore about 2 minutes later and started giving the woman CPR.

Jack sat looking out at the calm blue sea, but he's mind was not on the calmness of the water it was still on the woman. He didn't even look up as Kate sat beside him.

"Who was she?" he asked her, there was no emotion in his voice.

Kate sighed she knew he was beating himself up on the inside for not saving her. Would knowing what her name was make it any better? She didn't think it would but she knew if she didn't tell him someone else probably would.

"Her name was Joanna, she wasn't supposed to be on the plane. She was scuba diving off the barrier reef and got an ear infection so the doctor grounded her for a couple days. She bumped her flight, and ended up there with us. She went swimming and got caught in a riptide."

"We've been here 6 days and I never talked to her. Never said a word to her."

"Jack," Kate started but stopped, how was she supposed to tell him not blame himself when she blamed herself for it.

"6 days and not 1 word," Jack repeated as he threw a rock he had been holding towards the water.

"You tried Jack."

"Not hard enough."

Kate was placing water bottle she had just filled in the storage area along with some fruit she had collected on her return trip. That day had turned into the hottest day on the island so far and she had already made several trips to refill the bottles.

"Hey, Kate," called Walt as he and Vincent run to her.

"What wrong?" she asked as he stop in front of her breathing heavy, it was to hot for him to be running without an important reason.

"The pregnant lady she fell," he panted.

"Where is she?"

"My dad and that Charlie guy are taking her to the infirmary."

Kate ran toward the large tent that was used as the infirmary. She got there a couple of second before them, she held the flap open as they carried the past out Claire in, they placed her in one of the plane chairs.

"What happened?" Kate asked them.

"I don't know she just dropped," Charlie said. Kate placed the back of her hand on Claire's forehead, she was warm.

"Where's Jack?" Kate asked.

"He went in to the jungle earlier with Locke but I have seen him since," Michael told her.

"I think the heat got to her," Kate said, "go get water."

Michael and Charlie hurried out of the tent as Kate pulled her own water bottle out of her bag. She poured it on to a rag and dabbed it against her forehead and her flushed cheeks; she then gentle pulled her shirt up to expose her enlarged stomach. She re-wet the cloth and draped it over her stomach, she rest her hand on it for a moment and felt the baby move. As she did this she talked quietly to Claire.

"Claire, honey, can you hear me? It's Kate. I need you wake up, please. Come on honey. Wake up Claire."

Claire shifted a little and groaned as she opened her eyes.

"Hey," Kate smiled at her.

"The baby," Claire's eyes opened wider and she tried to sit up in the reclined chair but Kate held her down with a hand on her shoulder.

"He's fine," Kate reassured her giving the water that was left to drink. "Can you tell me what happened?"

"I don't remember much, just felling warm and really tired all of a sudden. After that things get fuzzy. What happened?"

"You past out, had a bit too much sun," Kate told her.

"A bit," Claire smiled.

"Yeah, just a bit," Kate joked and Claire laughed. Charlie and Michael arrived then with more water, once Charlie was reassured that Claire was fine he and Michael went to make sure everyone drank plenty of water and stayed out of the sun as much as possible as Kate had instructed. Their departure allowed Claire and Kate to have some time alone to talk.

"Kate," Claire said as Kate placed a cloth on the back of her neck and shoulders.

"Hmmm."

"Can I ask you a serious question?"

"Sure," she said moving back to sit in front of her.

"Would you be the baby's godmother?" Claire asked, Kate blinked at her stunned then pulled her into a hug.

"I'd love to," Kate said smiling and Claire also smiled hugging her back.

The next day Kate and Jack had found a string of caves the next day while on the run from a hive angry bees and the day after Jack prepared to move to the cave as it was a better shelter than what was on the beach. They had a bit of an argument about the move but had worked out that Jack had to do what he felt he needed to and so did Kate, they had parted with her asking him to be safe and he had asked the same of her. It was had become what they would always tell each when they parted ways not as a goodbye since neither wanted to say that, it was the closest thing they had to actually confessing to each other they were in love with the other.

That afternoon Sayid prepared to led Boone and Kate in the placing of the last two antenna "Three antennas. Three points of a triangle. One here on the beach. Another, Kate has positioned in the jungle, roughly two kilometers in, and the third I'll take to high ground, up there. If the French woman's transmission is coming from somewhere within our triangulation, I'll be able to locate the source. But there is a complication."

"Of course there is," Boone scuffed.

"The power cells I grafted onto the antennas are dry. There's no telling how long they'll last. A minute - maybe more, maybe less."

"So we have to wait until we're in position before we switch them on," Kate said and Sayid nodded.

"Wait. Wait a second," Boone interrupted. "How are we going to be able to tell that we're actually in the right position? We have no way to communicate with each other."

Sayid unzipped his bag and should them three, rather large, rockets he had salvaged from the crash.

"Bottle rockets?" Kate asked unsure how someone had managed to get them on the plane.

"Thank God for fireworks smugglers. Now, when I'm in position I'll fire off my rocket. When you two see it, you fire yours. As soon as the last one has gone up we all switch on the antennas."

Jack had started to set up another infirmary in one of the caves when Charlie came in yelling about something.

"You know? A lot of people look up to me. They respect me. And you, you just treat me like I'm some bloody child! Like I'm some useless joke!"

"What are you talking about?" Jack asked as Charlie came closer, Hurley stayed in the entrance way of the cave with Sun and Jin.

"Charlie's not good enough to do this; Charlie's just in the way. Put Charlie onto that."

"Charlie, just calm down, alright. You're not yourself," Jack said trying to calm the raging brit, but it wasn't working.

"You don't know me! I'm a bloody rock god!" Charlie yelled.

A sudden rumble could be heard, Jack and Charlie looked up at the ceiling to watch a crack in the ceiling started to grow and spread. Small stones started to fall around them.

"Run," Jack yelled as he spun Charlie around to face the cave's collapsing entrance. Charlie finally got his feet to move and ran for it with Jack behind him.

Charlie land on the outside Hurley moved over to him.

"Charlie you alright dude? Where's Jack?"

Charlie looked around then turned back to the cave, pointing at.

"Jack can you hear me?" Hurley yelled, but there was nothing. he turned to Charlie. "Dude, go to beach and get as many people you can and tell them what happened?" Charlie started to move when Hurley called after him "and be sure to tell Kate."

Jack coughed; he lay on his back in what had been the cave. He could hear yelling coming in from the outside but it was all muffled, all except one word which was already revolving in his mind.

"Kate," he choked out. 

Kate stopped on the hike to the antenna she'd placed, her gaze moved to one spot in the distance like it was drawn by a magnet. _'Jack?'_

"Kate," Sayid's voice brought her back to earth, she turned to him to look at him, "you alright?"

"Yeah," Kate said starting to move again.

She was soon sitting in the tree she had placed the antenna in, she'd placed the rocket in position so she could fire it once she saw Sayid's flare. Her mind was elsewhere though as she checked her watch, 20 minutes till 5. Her mind was on Jack, it normally was but this time was different something was wrong, very wrong.

'_Is he still mad at me?'_ she wondered, she thought they had settled the matter before he left but maybe she was wrong. She was pretty sure she wasn't but still something was off.

The beeping of her watch's alarm brought her back the reality, it was 5 minutes till 5 and she looked in the direction she had last seen Sayid heading and waited for the signal. Second tick away like hours then she sees the rocket in the air and heard its explosion. She flicked the zippo Sawyer had given her after he told he had quit smoking, sparks fly as the fuse lights. The rocket soars up in to the sky, and with her hand on the switch she turns look for Boone's rocket, nothing.

"Come on," she mutters waiting then she sees it and hits the switch.

"Freckles," comes a yell from the jungle as she heads down the tree.

"Here," she called from half way down.

Sawyer hurried out of the jungle towards the tree; he was out of breath having been running around looking for her to tell her the news of the cave-in.

"What is it? What's wrong?"

"Jack," Sawyer panted, "he got trapped in a cave-in." He hated that he had to be the one to tell her, he hated the look of fear in her face. Kate had never shown fear before the damn crash.

She jumped from the tree and literally hit the ground running, leaving Sawyer to try and keep up.

Kate made it back to caves in record time her energy fuelled by fear that she would get there too late. She would never see Jack again, never see his smile, hear his voice and never have a hope in hell of telling him what he meant to her.

She found everyone sitting, _'is he safe? Did they get him out?'_ she wonder. She looked around but didn't see him and their faces weren't triumphant.

"Where is he?" she asked, they looked up at her startled. They looked afraid of her and sorry for her. She hears shaky breathing behind and stumbled running but she doesn't look to see who it was, it didn't matter they weren't Jack.

Hurley swallows he would have to tell her since no one else had the heart to. He points over his shoulder at the rock covered entrance way and the small collapsed tunnel. "In there."

"Is he alive?" she asked in a shacking voice, no one answers in a stronger, demanding voice she repeats the question fearing the answer.

"We.. we don't know. We made tunnel and Charlie went in after him but the tunnel collapsed," Michael said, he look like he was about to apologize to her but she walked past.

"Then why aren't you digging?" she asked them coldly. She started moving the rubble out of the way, Sawyer moved next to her and the others form a chain to move the rocks again.

Sawyer moved the larger stones for her, he couldn't tell her to stop even though he wanted. He knew it wouldn't do any good, she wouldn't listen to him.

"Kate you should take a break," Michael said finally voicing Sawyer's own thoughts.

"I'm fine," she told him without emotion, giving the answer Sawyer knew she would as she kept moving rocks.

"You keep digging like this and you'll end up killing yourself." Kate shot him a look and he reluctantly backed off.

When Kate did stop she scared Sawyer, who thought she would keel over. But she turned to look behind them, then Walt spoke up.

"Hey, it's the doc."

Everyone else looked now, Jack stood there covered in dirt with Charlie.

Jack had stopped when he had seen Kate, he wanted to tell her what he had promised himself he would tell her if ever got out alive. But seeing her there cover in dirt, sweaty and looking utterly exhausted she was still so beautiful he could hardly breathe let alone speak.

Kate hugged him to her tightly almost not able to let go.

"How did you get out?" she asked finally letting go.

"Charlie," Jack said when he found his voice, "he found a way out," Jack clapped the slightly shorter man on the shoulder, Kate hugged him also as the rest of the digging team came to congratulate Charlie for the rescue. With everyone crowding around them no one noticed an emotion and physically spent Kate moved away leaning heavily on Sawyer.

""I'm telling you he must have it," Boone told Jack and Sayid. Jack was in thought; Boone had just finished explaining to him that he believed that Sawyer had Shannon's asthma medication sine he had Boone's book which had been in the bag with it.

"And you have spoken to him about this," Sayid asked as Jack kept cleaning the head wound he had received while searching for a signal.

"Yes, but the hick just smiles at me and says he doesn't have it, he is lying," Boone ranted.

"I'll talk to him," Jack told him which seemed to help some.

Once Jack had finished with Sayid he went to look for Sawyer. He wasn't that hard to find, he was sitting on the beach with his back against a tree as he read the book Boone had said was in his bag and with the medicine.

"Where's the inhaler Sawyer?" he asked directly.

"Sorry doc, but I ain't got it," Sawyer said getting up and going to walk away.

"But you know where it is," Jack followed.

"Haven't the foggiest."

Jack stopped and let him walk off, he then turned to Sayid who had been watching and working as a lie detector or at least trying.

"So is he telling the truth?" Jack asked him.

"It is easier to tell if one is lying if they are under stress," he replied. Jack was about to ask what kind of stress he meant when Boone interrupted him.

"I need some help over here."

Jack run to Boone with Sayid behind, Boone knelt beside Shannon who was struggling for breath.

"The attacks are getting worse," Boone told them as Jack knelt in front of her.

"Shannon, listen to me. Look at me. You need to listen to me okay?" Shannon nodded. "This isn't just the asthma, its anxiety too. It's in your head, do you understand?" Shannon nodded again. "Good, now I need you to breathe in through your nose then out through the mouth."

She did that but winced in pain, the stress was causing her asthma to make breathing painful.

"Hurts," she choked out. Sayid moved to rest on his knees behind her.

"I may be able to help. If you will allow me," he told her and she nodded. He placed a hand on either shoulder, and moved his thumbs to rest on a pressure point at the tip of her shoulder blades. Shannon felt a small shiver run down her spine from the feeling of his hands; she knew that if the circumstances where different the feeling of his strong hands would be extremely enjoyable.

Sayid started to move his thumbs in circular motion applying light pressure; he nodded to Jack to try again.

"Okay, Shannon. We're going to try this again, now breathe with me." She took a deep breath in the let it out slowly as he instructed, there was no pain now. "Good your color is starting to come back, again."

They continued this until the attack had passed fully.

"Wow, dude that was amazing. I mean it was like a Jedi moment," Hurley said having watched the whole thing.

Sun walked slowly into the jungle, she had also seen what had happened and had an idea of how to help, but she would need Kate's help to find what she needed.

Once certain that Shannon was no longer in danger of another attack Sayid followed after Sawyer. He would apply the pressure need for him to be certain of the answer; it wouldn't be physical, though it was tempting, but emotional. It took almost half an hour him to find the southerner.

"You're here to ask me about Stick's meds too huh," Sawyer said not looking up from his book.

"Yes, but first I need you to consider a hypothetical situation first."

"Well, shot," Sawyer said and closed the book, using a finger to hold the place.

"I need you to think about if Kate…" Sayid started but Sawyer interrupted him.

"Are threatening her?" Sawyer growled getting to his feet.

"No," Sayid shook his head, "just think of what if Kate was in Shannon's place at this moment." Sayid watched as Sawyer's expression changed, it went from anger to fear, his eyes taking a slightly sad appearance. "Now I need you to tell me where you found the book."

"In the ocean, it was just floating there," he said, Sawyer's voice had lost all its usual cockiness.

Sayid walks away leaving Sawyer with his thoughts before he also walks away. Jack almost walks into Sayid.

"He's telling the truth," he tells him.

"You're sure?" Jack asks.

"Very, he wouldn't lie when it comes to her," Sayid nodded it head towards Kate, who was talking to Sun on the other side of the cave while working with some plants.

"What did you say?"

"I asked him to think about Kate if she was in Shannon's position." Sayid watched the same fear that had crossed Sawyer's face now show on Jack's.

"It's like a miracle. She put some of that stuff on her chest and 2 minutes later she can breathe perfectly fine," Boone said point at the greenish gel in half a coconut shell Jack held.

"It's eucalyptus," Jack said to him after smelling it, he turned to Sun and thanked her.

Kate walked after Sayid, who had finished packing his things for a trip around the island.

"Sayid," she called after him, "you don't have to do this you know. I mean you haven't seen what's out there."

"I know I don't have to, but who else can map out this island. I'm not afraid of what is out there; if it is my fate to be killed by it then it was meant to be."

Kate looked down at the ground then back up to him, "be careful."

Sayid smiled to her, "you do the same my friend," he started to walk off again then turned back to her, "and see if you can keep that cousin of yours out of trouble."

"That will be hard to do but I'll try," she smiled, he waved and was gone.


	7. Whispers

Disclaimer; I don't own Lost or the song, Shall Not Walk Alone

* * *

><p>Kate looked out at the ocean as the sun rose sending strikes of golds and pinks across the still dark and starry sky.<p>

"Care to tell me why you always seem to be up now?" Jack said as he stood beside her.

"Always was an early riser, but mostly to see this," she meant the sunrise, "kind makes me forget what out there, least for a little while."

Jack stood there watching her for a while just admiring her beauty. The fading stars still shone in her eyes, a soft breeze blowing her curly hair, and the light of the rising sun giving her an angelic glow.

"It's been two days Jack," she said softly causing him to blink and come out of his trance like state, "since he left."

"He'll come back, once he finds what his looking for," he told her. His hand barely brushed hers, they both felt a pleasant jolt from it and he had to resist taking hers in his but he didn't break contact, neither did she. "He is a trained soldier he knows how to take care of himself."

Kate nodded smiling a little, his voice always reassured her. They stood there in silence for a while hands still touching as the watched the sun's slow ascent in to the heavens.

A gospel song her high school choir sang started to play in Kate's mind and she softly began to sing it.

"Battered and torn,

still I can see the light.

Tattered and worn,

but I must kneel to fight."

Jack smiled when she started to sing, she had lovely speaking voice, but her singing voice was amazing like he thought it would be. He knew the song and couldn't help but sing the chorus with her.

"When my legs no longer carry,  
>and the warm wind chills my bones.<br>I reach for Mother Mary,  
>and I shall not walk alone."<p>

Kate smiled as he sang with her, and kept smiling after they had finished the song.

"You've got an amazing voice, Kate," he smiled back her.

"Not so bad yourself," she blushed.

Sayid knelt on one knee as he examined a cable that trailed in the jungle. He stood up and began to fallow it. He stopped having spotted a trip wire, he carefully stepped over it. He was about to take another step when he felt a sharp tug on his left leg and the next thing he knew he was hanging upside down by his ankle.

He swung on the rope and tried to reach his bag that he had drop, it had a knife in it. He swore softly under his breath, he couldn't reach it. He was about to see if he could flip right-side and I shall not walk alone up again and try to remove the rope when he heard movement nearby.

"Hello?" he called.

He then fell to the ground less than a second after a knife had cut the rope holding him up. He saw someone move toward him but his vision blurred and everything when dark.

"Where is Alex?" this question filtered in to Sayid's foggy mind as he started to wake up. He blinked slowly he could see a shadow of woman in front of him, his eyes focus and he looked around he was lying on a metal bed frame.

"Where am I? Who are you?" he asked her but she just looked at him coldly.

"Where is Alex?" she repeated, she had a rather heavy French accent.

"I don't know what you are talking about." Sayid tensed as an electric charge shot through his body. His body as reflex tried to move away from what had electrocuted him but leather straps held his wrist above his head and chains where wrapped around his feet holding them down.

"Where is Alex?" the woman repeated.

"Please listen" Sayid start wanting to explain how he got on the island and that he did know an Alex when she asked again.

"Where is Alex?"

"I don't know any Alex," Sayid says and gets shocked again, "stop," he asks but couldn't help but remember when he had been an interrogator for the Iraq Republic Guard. A man had asked the same of him while he was being tortured but Sayid didn't, it was his job to get answers.

"I keep telling you I don't know who Alex is! I'm a survivor of a plane crash. I found a wire on the beach, I followed it. I thought it might have something to do with the transmission we picked up on our receiver. A mayday that's been on a loop for 16 years." Sayid said quickly before he was shocked again.

"Has it really been 16 years?" the woman said a bit in awe as she stepped out of the shadows.

"You, you sent the signal," Sayid said.

"You just happened to hear my distress call? I know what you are." She spoke angrily as she approached him holding a rifle at her side; she then quickly struck him with the butt of the rifle, knocked him.

Sayid came to again he could see the woman behind what looked like a net; she was going through his bag and wasn't paying attention to him. He looked around and spoted a jacket on it was the name Rousseau.

"Rousseau," Sayid read the name. The woman looks up from the bag at him.

"How do you know my name?" she asked moving a little ways toward him holding a envelope that she had taken from his bag.

"I read it on the jacket, there," he nodded his head toward the direction. "what is this place? How are you powering the transmission, those batteries couldn't have powered it this long?"

"It broadcasts from somewhere else, but they control it now."

"They?" he asked puzzled

"You, you and the others," she told him.

"I don't know who you keep saying I am but I can tell you that I'm.."  
>"Sayid?" she interrupted him.<p>

"How do you know my name?" he asked the tables turned.

She held up the manila envelope with his name on it, she then took a picture of a lovely Iraqi woman out of it.

"My name was on a jacket, yours on an envelope you carry. Who is she?"

"Nadia," Sayid said sadly, "her name was Nadia."

"Tell me more about her."

"If you agree to tell me your story," Sayid bargained.

Rousseau thought about this for a while then agreed and Sayid began to tell her.

"We knew each other as children, and we became close before I joined the Iraqi republican guard. I was a soldier for many years before she died, I wasn't told how. A short time after her death myself and several others were captured by American troops. It was from a sergeant with them that I learned how Nadia had really died. She, along with many other innocent families, had been killed in an aerial bombing by the guard. She was murdered by the very people I trusted and worked with."

Sayid said nothing after that and Rousseau didn't either for a while.

"I want to show you something," she said in an almost whisper then moved away behind the net. When she returned she was carrying a small box, "It's a music box, but it's broken. It has been for a long time. It was a gift from my love for our anniversary."

"Alex?"

"Robert. This was such a comfort to me in the first few years here." She looked down at the box she held as though it was the most fragile thing in the world.

"I could fix it for you. I could take a look at it," Sayid said softly seeing the pain and love in the woman's eyes as she looked at the box. Rousseau looked up at him, "I'm very good with mechanical things. I need my hands."

She moved to a table and placed the music box on in it gently before picking up a syringe.

"What are you doing?" Sayid asked her as she filled the needle. "You don't have to do this." She was walked slowly over to him and quickly stuck him with the needle and everything went dark.

When Sayid woke up again he was sitting in a chair his had laying on a desk, he jumped up but chains kept him from standing fully and he fell back in the chair. He look to his right to see Rousseau watching him.

"Sorry about the sedative," she said.

Sayid's gaze traveled farther to the right to look behind him, he could see some maps on a table.

"It was the only safe way for me to move you," she told him then looked at him as if studying him. "You offered to fix my music box after all I've done to you; striking you, shocking you. Why?"

"Do you want me to fix your music box, or don't you?" Sayid asked her.

"Yes. Yes, please," she said standing up.

"I want to know your name. Your first name." Sayid clarified as he began to look at the box.

"Danielle. My name is Danielle," she told him knowing what he would ask next.

"And how did you come to be on this Island, Danielle?"

Danielle sighed softly as she walked to sit facing away from him. "We were part of a science team. Our vessel was 3 days out of Tahiti when our instruments malfunctioned. It was night, a storm, the sounds. The ship slammed into rocks, ran aground, the hull breached beyond repair. So, we made camp, dug out this temporary shelter. Temporary. Nearly 2 months we survived here, 2 months before…"

"Your distress signal? The message I heard, you said, 'It killed them all.'"

"We were coming back from the Black Rock. They sent it after us."

"Who were they?"

"The Others," she told him pacing slowly now.

"What others? What is the Black Rock?" he asked his voice rising slightly then quieter he asked, "have you seen other people on this Island?"

"No, but I hear them. Out there, in the jungle. They whisper." She looked back at him now and could see the sympathy in his eyes, "you think I'm insane."

Sayid shook his head slowly, "no, I think you've been alone for too long."

The rest of the time passed in silence before the soft musical notes of the box fill the cabin.

"You see, some things can be fixed," he told her smiling.

"Thank you," she got up from where she had been sitting and walked over to him, gingerly taking the precious box back. "Thank you so much. Thank you so much," was all she could say as she watched the tiny figures dance in the box.

"Danielle, please let me go."

"Go?" she repeated not understanding the request.

"Back to the people I told you about."

"You can't," she shook her head. "You have to stay. It's not safe."

"Not safe, what's not safe?"

"You need me!" she said forcefully, "you can't leave."

"Danielle..." Sayid started but was interrupted by the growls from somewhere outside the cabin. Danielle put the music box down gently and grabbed a rifle and a bag as she quickly head to the entrance way in the roof of the small shelter.

"Where are you going?" Sayid asked as she moved the growling continued outside.

"If we're lucky, it's one of the bears," she lifted the hatch up slowly looking around before opening it fully.

"If we're lucky? It might be that thing out there, the beast," he told her as she looked back at him."

"Then I guess we weren't so lucky," she said then was gone.

"Danielle," he called but she didn't come back. His guess fell on the second rifle that was in the corner. He grabbed a screwdriver from the desk and hurriedly began to undo his chains.

He grabbed a carton the bullet and placed them in his pocket then quickly folded the maps and charts on the table before placing them in his pack. He slung that over his shoulder and grabbed the remaining rifle before hurrying up the ladder after her. Sayid however had neglected to grad the photo of Nadia from the desk.

Danielle carefully scanned the jungle around as she cautiously moved on the rifle raised ready to fire.

"Put the gun down, Danielle." Sayid says from behind her, she turned to look at him, "put it down on the ground."

She turned completely now the gun lowered at the ground. She looked carefully at the rifle Sayid still has trained on her.

"The firing pin has been removed," she said softly.

Sayid looks at her confused then at the rifle he is holding, he checked and she's right there was no firing pin. He was holding a useless gun; he tossed it on the ground

"I can't let you go. Don't you understand, to have someone to talk to."

Sayid could see the desperation and the loneliness in her eyes as she spoke.

"Come back with me," he offered.

"What?"

"I know what it's like to hold on to someone. I've been holding on to Nadia's photograph for the past 7 years. But the more I hold on, the more I pull away from those around me. The only way out of this, this place, is with their help." As he spoke he move slowly closer to her, she turned away ad knelt on the ground. Tears had started to form in her eyes, Sayid knelt beside her and continued speaking, "come with me." She shook her head, "you don't have to be alone, Danielle."

She gentle placed a hand on his shoulder then suddenly stood up and walked away from him as he watched her. She looked over her shoulder at him as he slowly stood up.

"Your people, the ones you're determined to get back to, watch them, keep them close."

"Danielle," Sayid called after, she stopped walking but didn't turn around, "who is Alex?"

"Alex was my daughter," she said sadly then left him.

Sayid begins his walk back the beach, he listened the wind as blew gentle through the leaves and to the birds as the chirped happily in the tree tops. He had finally moved on after 7 years of mourning and he felt good for it. As he listened he noticed another sound, the sound of whispering.


End file.
